The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance in partnership with Target Resource Group (TRG) is running two great mini sessions to get your mind and direct mail muscles ready for the upcoming cultural season.

As you look to stretch your marketing budgets and reach of your message, join us for these short, intense sessions that are sure to get your mind running. Who knows, you may even break a sweat. You may attend either or both sessions. Light refreshments will be provided.

Session #1- Feel the Burn: Strengthening your Core (Audience)
9:00–10:15 am
Are you cannibalizing your core audience in favor of a fast return? Could you be making more money with strategic offers and timing? Building your core audience requires discipline and strategic thinking. This session will focus on how to promote upgrades to patrons through mail and telemarketing as well as sequencing and timing of offers.

Featured case study:
People’s Light and Theatre Company focused obsessively on upgrading subscribers to their “best-value” 6-pack (full) series this season. So far, they have had 202 packages upgrade to the 6-pack. Additionally, they have seen an increase of 4% in overall renewal rate and 14% for 6-Play series renewals in comparison to last year at this time.

Session #2- Size Does Matter: Using Response Trends to Refine your Campaign
10:30 – 11:45 am
Who should you mail? How often should you mail? When should you mail? This session will explore how to use historical and current response rates to dictate your mail cycle and ultimately increase response. You’ll learn basic principles of how to track response as well as how to use that information effectively in your organization.

Featured case studies:
Arena Stage (Washington DC) was focused heavily on attracting new single ticket buyers and new buyers, but cycling through them quickly. After a TRG audit mid-way through the subscription campaign, aggressive new tactics were introduced to the subscription campaign including targeted, multi-wave mailings and a more entrepreneurial approach to telemarketing which resulted in subscription revenue which exceeded budget by $100,000 vs. the original projected loss of $60,000 at the beginning of work with TRG.

People’s Light and Theatre Company has substantially increased subscriptions this year without increasing their budget. They did so by following the trends and remailing appropriate groups while eliminating unresponsive trades and in-house lists from the next cycle of mail.

For questions about this workshop, please contact Melissa Cooper at (215) 399-3524 or melissac@philaculture.org

The Philadelphia Cultural List Cooperative is a program of Engage 2020. Engage 2020 is sponsored by a lead grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, with additional support from The Wallace Foundation and The Philadelphia Foundation.